Hand of the day #145
The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff “An umbrella is of no avail against a Scotch...
The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff
One of my colleagues at world championships for many years, the distinguished New Zealand player and administrator John Wignall, found this nice play in four hearts.
Opening Lead: ♦Q
Before you look at the play, consider what material you wish to use for your 10th trick. A squeeze seems unlikely; so how will you utilize those club spots to produce an extra trick?
The defenders started normally enough by leading a top diamond rather than a spade. Declarer won in hand, drew trumps, and now exited with a spade to East.
A club shift would have been immediately fatal, so East could do nothing but play off the three top spades. When West discarded, that marked him as having been dealt a 2-1-6-4 shape.
Now all Wignall needed was for West to hold the club ace. He ruffed the third spade and led out his penultimate trump, dummy still having 3♦ and 3♣. What five cards was West to keep? If he kept two diamonds and three clubs, declarer would pitch a club from the board. Then he would ruff out the diamonds and use the club queen as an entry to North’s winner. By contrast, if West pitched a club, then declarer would lead to the ♣Q and duck a club on the way back. West’s ace would fall on empty air.
Either way, declarer was home, for a game swing to his side when the line was missed in the other room.
Bid with the Aces
Answer: 3♣
Partner has shown clubs and spades and a good hand — and no interest in defending facing heart length or he would have doubled. You have useful cards for partner in each of his suits so should bid, not pass; and since your partner’s clubs should be longer than his spades, you should bid three clubs now.
This Hand of the Day was originally published on aces.bridgeblogging.com.
This seems to happen too often: dummy does not hold the 3 of diamonds and the 3 of clubs, West does.
with six points pass is the only option at the two level